unprecedented rise

Why cocoa prices are soaring with no benefit for Africa

By Baudelaire Mieu

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Posted on August 3, 2023 08:37

French company Cemoi’s chocolate factory in Abidjan (AFP/Issouf Sanogo).

The anticipated drop in yields for the 2023/2024 season is pushing up the price of cocoa, but producing countries are unlikely to benefit.

For the first time in more than 30 years, international cocoa prices have soared. On 26 July in London, the benchmark market for ‘brown gold’, prices for September contracts reached £2,700 ($3,426) a tonne, while in New York, prices topped the $3,552 mark.

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